Pandora/Gene Wolfe

seth alan tisue · 08 Feb 1991, 08:57 · from sf-lovers.1991.mbox

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From: tisu at quads.uchicago.edu (seth alan tisue)
Subject: Re: Pandora/Gene Wolfe
Date: 8 Feb 91 08:57:38 GMT
Message-ID: <sflovers-v16-50-6 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V16 #50
X-Urthmirror-Source: https://archive.org/details/sf-lovers-digest-vol-16a

rjohnson at vela.acs.oakland.edu (R o d Johnson) writes:
>Wolfe is a tricky guy, and I think a restless one.  He seems to go through
>phases of experimentation, which can produce failures, followed by
>masterpieces.  Right now he seems to be putting out busy, chaotic, cryptic
>novels.  Who knows what great work might follow from this?  Several
>post-New Sun works have been failures, in my opinion - "There are Doors",
>"Castleview", "Free Live Free" but, the successes are as original as
>anything you could ever wish for, believe me.  Even if you *hate* "Soldier
>of the Mist", for instance, it's difficult to see it as being imitative of
>anything else in recent English fiction, I think.

I agree about ~There Are Doors"...  That was the dullest book I've ever
read by him; such an interesting premise, too.  The first half wasn't bad
and then the book just spiralled around aimlessly after that.  Haven't read
"Castleview" yet, nor "Soldier of the Mist".  With that series, I'm waiting
until Wolfe finishes writing all the books, so I can read them in order
without long pauses in between.  My first foray into SotM made it pretty
clear that it was going to be at least as (delightfully!) difficult to
assimilate as "The Book of the New Sun", which I could never have followed
if I'd had to wait a year between books.  Oh well.

Seth Tisue
University of Chicago                              
P.O. Box 5975

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